The Second Confesion

No reply. In a moment her voice came, muffled. “I ought to think it over some more.” “Yeah, that never does any harm, but you haven't got much time. The DA may be here any minute. Also you asked my advice, and I'd be in better shape to make it good if I knew something about your idea. Go ahead and describe it.” She turned her head enough to let her eyes, now shielded from the sun, take me in at an angle. “You could be clever if you worked at it,” she said. “It's fun to watch you going after something. Say I saw or heard something last night and now I tell you about it. Within thirty seconds, for as you say there isn't much time, you would have to go in to wash your hands, and as soon as you're in the house you run upstairs and tell Nero Wolfe. He gets busy immediately, and probably by the time the District Attorney gets here the answer is all ready for him-or if it doesn't go as fast as that, when they do get the answer it will be Nero Wolfe that started it, and so the bill he sends my father can be bigger than it could have been otherwise. I don't know how much money Dad has spent on me in my twenty-six years, but it's been plenty, and now for the first time in my life I can save him some. Isn't that wonderful? If you had a widowed middle-aged daughter whose chest expanded three inches, wouldn't you want her to act as I am acting?” “No, ma'am,” I said emphatically.

“Of course you would. Call me something else, like darling or little cabbage.

Here we are, locked in a tussle, you trying to make money for your boss and me trying to save money for my father, and yet we're-” She sat up abruptly. “Is that a car coming? Yes, it is.” She was on her feet.

“Here he comes, and I've got to do my hair!” She streaked for the house.

CHAPTER Thirteen